County sets airport hangar rates

With all members present, the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners met Tuesday, Dec. 9 in the Lincoln County Boardroom. Commissioners heard agenda items including the creation of a public defender advisory committee, continued airport discussions, and courthouse closure for Christmas Eve.

Auditor Sheri Lund asked the commission to consider a motion to establish a public defender advisory committee pursuant to SDCL 7-16A-4. Lund asked for a committee and direction on how to recruit for the committee. 

“The composition of the committee will be one non-lawyer, non-county employee, non-law enforcement personnel, two county commissioners, and two practicing attorneys,” Lund said. 

A motion to establish the committee by Betty Otten, seconded by Jim Schmidt, motion carried. Lund asked how the commission would like her to recruit for the positions giving the recommendation of advertising online and letters to law firms. 

“I’m thinking that we put it online and having people submit a letter of interest would be sufficient,” said Chairwoman, Tiffani Landeen. 

“I agree with that, and that’s what we’ve done for other boards as well,” said Commissioner Joel Arends. 

Bob Babcock and Brook Edgar of Helms & Associates gave a presentation regarding the Marv Skie – Lincoln County Airport. 

“We wanted to talk a little bit about where your capital funding comes from for the airport and talk about some of the things that we’ve accomplished together since you’ve hired us as your consultant in the last several years,” Edgar said. 

“The main source of funding we have is the Airport Improvement Program (AIP). It was established in 2004 and it gives each general aviation airport across the country $150,000 of entitlement funds as long as you meet the minimum criteria to be a public use airport,” she continued. 

Since 2019 Helms & Associates have worked towards getting a number of grants including Environmental for Land Acquisition, splitting the general aviation parking ramp into two phases and reconstruction of pavement. 

“I roughly added these numbers in my head and it looked like you had about $3.3 million and it cost the county about $105,000,” Babcock said. 

The current project the team is working on is developing the South 20 acres for hangars, updating the runway lighting, and providing a space for pilots flying in. 

Commissioner Arends asked what is the timeline and what are they waiting on. 

“It’s our understanding that most of the work has already been done, the leg work is done, and it was most of the way through the process and then Sioux Falls Tower had an objection towards the end of the process and because there was a strong objection to the approach being developed and published it has been stopped,” Edgar responded. 

Arends asked for clarification on if an airplane hangar is eligible for the 95% cost share. 

“A county-owned hangar is an eligible expense; it’s called a revenue producing project. The caveats to that is it’s not eligible if you have pavements that are not in good condition. You have to take care of your airside needs first and then FAA will support you in constructing a hangar. So until we get all of the pavements taken care of on there, the answer from the FAA will likely be no,” Edgar said. 

Commissioner Schmidt asked if it were possible for a private builder to come in and build hangars and if the FAA had regulations on the size or distance. 

“We would recommend, if you went down that route, making sure the infrastructure meets federal standards, FAA standards, and making sure you didn’t enter into an agreement that gives a private developer carte blanche. It’s the country’s land, it’s always going to be the county’s land, it needs to make sure that it stays that way,” Edgar said. 

Chairwoman Landeen asked for public comment on the presentation and Dale Knuth stood to speak. 

“I own a hanger and I’m on your airport board, and I’m also the president of the South Dakota Pilots Association, so I’ve done a lot of analysis on building hangars, owning hangars, whether the county should own it or not, and how the FAA participates. I just talked to the South Dakota Aeronautics Commission yesterday and they will not support any revenue producing requests,” said Knuth. 

“That’s a policy that they have. So, if you want to build a hangar, which is about $95 a square foot on the low side, the FAA would give you potentially 90% of that and you would be on the hook for 10%. If you did the South 20 acres which is about 220,000 sq ft. based on hangar space. That’s about $2.1 million to you, the county, if you’re going to build hangars,” Knuth continued. 

Knuth told the commission it would take between 12 and 15 years to get their investment back through rent.  

Airport Manager, David Myers requested the commission consider a motion to set Marv Skie-Lincoln County Airport ground lease rates. 

“There’s been a lot of anxiety since the last meeting from the hangar tenants and talking to the commissioners. There’s been a lot of neglect from leases with the terms and so forth, so I’m hopeful that today we’ll have some punctual information that we can put this aside and move forward,” he continued. 

Commissioner Arends asked if the commission has the ability to set the fuel rates at the airport. 

“Legacy Aviation owns the fuel and fuel pumps so that’s an entity that they control,” Myers responded. 

A motion to establish the hangar rent at 40 cent a square foot with a caveat that each year of a contract they have there is an additional equivalent to a half cent increase that is included and after five years of a contract that is re-evaluated and establish a 25 year lease minimum for airport development or hangar owners by Schmidt, second by Arends, motion carried 4-1 with Doug Putnam being the nay vote.

Human Resources Director, Kari Elling requested the commission consider a motion to approve McGrath Human Resources to conduct a market compensation study. 

“The cost of this study will require a supplement, the total cost is approximately $25,000 to $26,000 of which we have already budgeted for salary.com and we will forgo using salary.com next year and we’ll do the study in place of that. So the ask will be a supplement total of $19,000 and the focus on this will be compensation using existing job titles and comparing us in the market place,” she said.

 A motion to approve by Otten, seconded by Schmidt, motion 3-2 with Arends and Putnam being the nay votes.

Commissioners Schmidt and Otten requested the commission consider a motion to approve administrative leave on December 24 from 2 to 5 p.m. 

“I want to give our staff the opportunity to attend Christmas programs or go to the church or place of worship and I think that is something that is only in the spirit of Christmas that we should do,” Schmidt said. 

Motion to approve by Schmidt, seconded by Otten, motion carried unanimously.